West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee distributes masks at a ration shop in Kolkata. (Express photo/Partha Paul)
Amid the ongoing nationwide fight against the coronavirus pandemic, a major political row has erupted in West Bengal over the “insufficient” number of tests allegedly being conducted by the Mamata Banerjee-led government.
With those in the medical fraternity raising similar concerns over the state’s “hush-hush” approach, opposition parties are now accusing the government of doing little to stem the rise of the Covid-19 cases, a charged denied by the ruling Trinamool Congress.
On Saturday, the Bengal government said that the number of those infected stood at 233, while the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare website put the tally at 287.
“If you go through state-wise data of big states, you will find the number of tests conducted here is far less than elsewhere. Despite the Centre providing testing kits in abundance, for reasons best known to the state government, they are conducting fewer tests,” West Bengal BJP president and MP Dilip Ghosh was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
However, senior TMC leader Derek O’Brien claimed Bengal’s tally are better than most states.
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“We in Bengal are focused on the task at hand. We are carrying on with our work. It is this that has ensured Bengal’s COVID-19 numbers are better than most. We have worked hard, been first movers and prepared early to keep these numbers low,” he told PTI.
Sanitization process underway in a Kolkata market. (Express photo/Partha Paul)
“The rumours and mischief have to be responded to – with facts, figures and public health logic. We are fighting coronavirus. The opposition parties in Bengal are fighting Trinamool! Putting politics before a health emergency is a shame,” he added.
Recently, the National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (NICED), ICMR’s nodal COVID-19 testing facility in Kolkata, had pointed out that the state government is not sending enough samples for tests.
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Besides, the formation of an expert audit committee to certify whether the deaths have occurred due to the virus or other underlying ailments, called comorbidity in medical parlance, instead by the doctors who treated them, has led to growing skepticism about the reliability of the state government data.
People at a temporary quarantine center in Kolkata. (Express photo/Partha Paul)
In an interview to The Indian Express recently, Director of the NICED-ICMR Shanta Dutta had questioned the state decision to set up a committee to certify COVID-19 deaths. Dutta said it was the treating physician who should decide whether a patient with coronavirus had died due to it.
“Members of the audit committee are updated by attending physicians on the condition of a patient. Hence, the attending physician is the best judge to decide the factors responsible for a death. Moreover, any death in a COVID-19 case occurs due to cardio-respiratory failure, irrespective of co-morbid conditions or infections. Therefore, for counting deaths of COVID-19 patients, one should rely on the treating physician and not a committee,” he said.
Reacting to this, Ghosh said the state government has made a “mockery” of death figures by referring the matter of deceased patients to an audit committee.
Police block the road at Rajabazar, in Narkeldanga Main Road, in Kolkata. (Express photo/Partha Paul)
Union minister Babul Supriyo also upped the ante against the state government and said only the doctors treating the deceased should certify the reason for the death.
“After all, everybody ultimately dies of heart failure…..multi organ failure,” he said, adding there has been an attempt to “hide” the COVID-19 cases and fatalities.
Speaking on similar lines, leader of the Congress party in the Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, said the demarcation of coronavirus and non-coronavirus deaths is a “mechanism to hide facts”. He also called the panel a “truth suppressing mechanism”.
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A few senior medical professionals in the city also said the government must resort to aggressive testing to tackle the pandemic effectively.
The number of tests should be increased immediately in order to estimate the spread of the contagion. As most patients or suspects are asymptomatic, we need to have more sample testing, a senior physician told the news agency.
However, Chief Secretary Rajiv Sinha said the state has its own limitations as it cannot start testing in any laboratory because only the facilities authorised by the ICMR can conduct the coronavirus test.
Resident of Narkeldanga put up a poster “no one is allowed inside without mask” on Sunday. (Express photo/Partha Paul)
“In terms of testing, we have a limitation as we all know that the approval comes from ICMR. We got permission for the Malda unit only a few days back,” he said.
Permission has been sought to conduct the test at the medical college in Murshidabad, RG Kar Medical college and hospital, Kolkata, Burdwan Medical College and Bankura Medical College, he added.
The state currently has eight ICMR-certified labs including NICED and the state-run SSKM hospital where COVID tests can be conducted.
Fire fighters spray disinfectant at VIP market, CIT road in Kolkata. (Express photo/Partha Paul)
Responding to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s complaint about the paucity of testing kits, Dutta said ICMR has dispatched 42,500 kits to NICED so far and that there is no shortage.
According to the state’s chief secretary Rajiva Sinha, a total of 4,630 samples have been tested by Saturday and West Bengal is now conducting over 400 tests every day.
The number of COVID-19 positive cases given out by the state and the Centre are also at variance with each other.
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